- James DeGale returns at 40 to face Marcus Portman over six rounds at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Saturday September 26, his first boxing match since February 2019
- The bout headlines the inaugural Reign event, a card mixing retired professionals with social-media crossover bouts
- DeGale had already boxed bare-knuckle before deciding it was not for him — this is the second comeback inside a year, and the wrong one
The Record Nobody Can Take Off Him
Right then. Before any of the rest of this, let's get the important bit down in writing. James DeGale is the first British boxer in history to win an Olympic gold medal and a professional world title. Beijing in 2008, then the IBF super-middleweight belt in Boston in 2015, won on the road against Andre Dirrell with a broken hand and a broken face. That is a proper career. That is a career most British fighters would take in a heartbeat.
Nothing that happens on Saturday night in Wolverhampton changes a word of that. But make no mistake, nothing that happens on Saturday night improves it either.
What Is Actually Being Staged
DeGale is 40 years old. He has not boxed under Queensberry rules since February 2019, when Chris Eubank Jr outpointed him over twelve rounds and he walked away saying he had achieved everything he wanted. He was right at the time. He said it with dignity and he meant it.
Since then he has been bare-knuckle boxing, beating Australia's Matt Floyd on points in a rough night's work, before deciding — correctly — that bare-knuckle was not for him. Now he is back in gloves, against Marcus Portman of West Bromwich, over six rounds, at the Civic Hall, headlining the first ever Reign event. A card built on retired professionals and social-media crossover bouts.
Let's not beat around the bush. That is not a comeback. That is an appearance fee.
Why This One Bothers Me More Than Most
I am not a purist about comebacks. Fighters come back. They come back for money, they come back for the noise, they come back because civilian life is unbearably quiet after twenty years of being someone. All of that is human and none of it is shameful.
What bothers me here is the framing. Six rounds against a durable Midlands journeyman is not a test, it is a photograph. And DeGale has spoken openly about wanting to move toward crossover names afterwards. So the plan is: get a win on the board against someone who will not hurt you, then sell the Olympic gold and the world title to an audience that was in primary school when you won either of them.
The Physical Question
DeGale at his peak was a slick, sharp southpaw with fast hands, good feet and the kind of ring intelligence that meant he never had to be in a war unless he chose one. By 2019 all of that had already started to go. The legs went first, the way they always do, and Eubank Jr — who is not a great fighter, whatever else he is — simply walked him down.
Seven years on top of that, with a bare-knuckle fight in the middle, and you are not getting the Boston version back. You are getting a forty-year-old with brilliant instincts and nothing underneath them. That is exactly the combination that gets a former world champion hurt in a six-rounder that should be a formality.
The Prediction
DeGale wins. I will say that clearly because sitting on the fence helps nobody. Portman is a solid, durable operator who has made a living giving prospects rounds, and he is not going to be the man who knocks out a former IBF world champion in a civic hall. DeGale boxes six comfortable rounds, takes a wide decision, and everyone tells him he looked brilliant.
And that is the bit I would worry about, because looking brilliant against Marcus Portman is exactly the result that leads to a much worse night six months from now. George Groves — the man DeGale spent a decade arguing with, and who has been talking sense all week about rebuilding careers — retired at 30 with the Ali Trophy and never came back. Not every ending needs a sequel.
Saturday will be fine. It is what Saturday makes possible that I do not like. If you know, you know.